Friday, July 18, 2008

Campers!

Ok, so with our summer speeding away from us and the home improvement projects lasting longer than planned (as they always do) our big camping trip to the Mohican Wilderness has been postponed a year. The joy of a nuclear family vacation - we can take it whenever we want:).In order to enjoy a little camping for free we decided to put up the tent in the front yard. It was just another reminder that the kids don't need the whole frills package to enjoy things. They celebrated as if we had just discovered gold in the front yard. The twins helped us put up the tent, and then celebrated the success by having Suzy chase them all around and in and out of it. This was highly entertaining as the first 5 times anyone went in or out, they tripped over the bottom zipper part. There was no crying though, just more laughing and popping up and running again, because camping is about roughing it.After the tent fun (or "house" fun as Suzy called it) wore off ,we realized it was really hot outside so we went inside to cool off (another perk of home camping). Eventually the evening cooled and we put Suzy to bed (as nobody would have gotten any sleep if she was in the tent) and the rest of the gang headed outside for fun and games. Since we don't have our fire pit yet, we skipped the classic smores and headed straight for flashlight tag. We also played flashlight funny face/scarey face, shadow puppets, and a game called "what's that" - an Ali creation where we tried to guess what the dark shapes outside were (please note parents are no fun at this because they actually know what all the shapes are and also it was a full moon).Around 10 I was told it was time for me to go inside as it was time for the "real camping" (apparently since i was going to sleep inside with Suzy and not in the tent, I did not qualify for real camping). This coming from two children on comfy marshmellow beds (the great irony being that we had lent out our air mattress to cousin Charlie and so Mike the old man was the only one actually sleeping on the ground. Big Daddy points for him! ) We did agree that it was time for sleep (and one last bathroom break into the house because of the excessive water bottle usage in the tent). So I kissed my campers good-night wondering if they would stay out all night or if they would be coming in at some point.They did make it all night long and in fact even slept in till after 8! They are definitely their Daddy's daughters, professional campers from the start. Hopefully by next year we can even allow Suzy in the tent.